The “INESA Lighting Handbook” published by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, is incorporated by reference here in its entirety. As discussed in chapter seven of that handbook, a “luminaire” is a device for producing, controlling, and distributing light. It is typically a complete lighting unit that includes one or more lamps, sockets for positioning and protecting the lamps and for connecting the lamps to a supply of electric power, optical devices for distributing the light, and mechanical components for supporting or attaching the luminaire. Luminaires are also sometimes referred to as “light fixtures.”
Luminaires are typically classified by their application, such as residential, commercial, or industrial. However, a particular luminaire can often be used in more than one application, depending upon its performance characteristics. For example, recessed downlights are used in both commercial and residential applications where they are typically mounted behind a ceiling wall with an opening to produce illuminance on the floor or workplace below.
Various support systems have been employed to carry recessed luminaires in buildings and other structures. For example, recessed fixtures are often suspended between joists, or other parallel support structures, on a pair of “hanger bars” or “bar hangers” extending between the joists. Similar hanger bar arrangements are used to suspend recessed downlights between the rails in a suspended, tile ceiling.
These conventional hanger bars are often formed in one-piece with a fixed length so as to provide adequate structural rigidity at a relatively low cost. Since the length of the hanger bar cannot be variably adjusted, its use is often limited to joists, or other supports, having a standard and consistent spacing.
As with single-piece hanger bars, two-piece hanger bars may be trimmed for use with smaller joist spacings. However, these hanger bar assemblies must generally be disassembled prior to altering their length. Furthermore, while such two-piece arrangements permit installation between supports or joists of various spacings, they generally suffer from a lack of stability that fails to provide adequate support for the suspended luminaire, especially when the hanger is installed in its fully-extended, or nearly fully-extended, position.
In addition to problems with conventional hanger bars, conventional luminaires often have issues with the location of the junction box as well as the ease in which a thermal protector case may be installed within a housing or can of the luminaire. Other problems with conventional luminaires, include, but are not limited to, mounting tabs attached to a plaster plate of the luminaire as well as how junction boxes are kept closed.
Generally, the space in which to install a luminaire comprising a recessed light fixture is limited, and so the time to install a recessed light fixture can be increased when parts of the light fixture (e.g., the luminaire, the luminaire housing) are cumbersome to install. Further, the space for each luminaire may be unique in that the space has different mounting options/structures to which fasten the luminaire.
What is needed in the art is a method and/or system for providing a luminaire in which a plurality of optional installation features are available for use by the installer to ease the installation of a luminaire where each mounting/physical location of a luminaire may be unique.